What a busy few weeks it’s been. I traveled to Dallas for CCA’s convention; Vegas for Surfaces; and Denver to speak at the Footprints conference. I’ve had so many opportunities to talk to flooring professionals at so many different levels. There are people who are starting their business; installers who are transitioning to retail; and flooring dealers shooting for $5 million, $10 million and more.
One common denominator I find in all flooring professionals I spoke with is that they are more impressive than they realize. For example: I’ve worked with several flooring dealers who offer sand and refinish of hardwood. A lot of them will offer pricing based on what the competition in their area is charging. Oftentimes it’s $3 to $4 per foot. They treat it as if it’s as simple as painting drywall.
In interviewing one client on their process for sand and refinish we created a flyer that outlines the expected customer experience:
- Accurate estimate
- Dust-free process
- Double sand-right process
- Fill & final prep/sand
- Water “pop” your flooring
- Stain-right process
- Apply stain
- Apply sealer
- Urethane finish
- Put your house back together after the installation
When you are selling you can tell a customer all these things, but it’s much more impactful to show them.
Make it extraordinary
There are many flooring experts who believe you have to teach your salespeople everything you know for them to be successful. Your responsibility as the store owner, manager or flooring expert is to create a way for your salespeople to convey your expertise without having all the experience and knowledge you possess.
The motivational speaker Les Brown said: “If you work hard your life will be easy.” It’s on you, the professional, the expert, to do the hard work to make it easy for your salespeople to sell what you do. A great sales presentation can make the difference between selling the job for $4/foot or getting $8/per foot. It will help you beat the competition even though your price is higher.
In addition, a great sales presentation will give your customer confidence in using you and make them afraid to use someone else. The best part is you don’t have to bad mouth your competition down the road. When you are able to command higher prices you can pay your salespeople more, pay your installers more, grow your business, take better care of your customers. Be sure to build a sales presentation for everything you offer, be it carpet, tile, LVT, laminate, hardwood, showers, back splash or total kitchen remodel.
The ‘whiteboard’ strategy
Tips are best remembered if you write them down. I personally love the whiteboard. Whenever you want to think something through, write it down on the whiteboard. When creating your sales presentation, write two columns; the first column is your process from start to finish; column No. 2 is your customers’ experience. If you can look at it through the eyes of your customer it will help you greatly in creating an excellent sales presentation.
The greatest thing is this is evergreen. You do the work and create it one time. A great sales presentation lives on forever.
Jerry Levinson, a former retailer, owns Profit Now 4 Flooring Dealers. He provides sales training, processes and systems for flooring dealers to help them grow their business and profits while working fewer hours. He also runs the Flooring Dealers & More group on Facebook.
